'Centre ready to get KMP e-way project finished by NHAI'

Union minister of state (MoS) for road transport and highways Krishan Pal Gujjar on Wednesday said the Centre was ready to get the pending construction work of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), if the Haryana government hands over the project to NHAI after settlement of issues with the concessionaire.

Union minister of state for road transport and highways Krishan Pal Gujjar (right) with Ambala MP Rattan Lal Kataria at a press conference at in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

Gujjar, who was speaking to reporters in Chandigarh on Wednesday, said the ministry of road transport and highways had asked the state government to resume the work on expressway within two months, failing which the ministry was ready to get it executed by the NHAI.

The yet-to-be completed 136-kilometre-long KMP expressway project is running behind schedule by nearly five years with the concessionaire — M/s KMP Expresways Limited — achieving a physical progress of less than 70%. The project, which was started in 2006, was to be commissioned on July 29, 2009.

The state government is now exploring different option, including termination of the concession agreement or substitution of concessionaire by the lenders, a sort of a bail out measure to get the project completed.

The IDBI Bank, the leading banker for the project, has already served the concessionaire — M/s KMP Expressways Limited — with a substitution notice. This means that the lenders have decided to step in for substitution of the concessionaire on account of its flagrant and continued defaults in performance of its financial and other obligations under the Common Rupee Loan Agreement.

M/s Feedback Infra Pvt Ltd, the independent consultant engaged by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), the executing agency for the development of the expressway, subsequently listed out seven options.

These include — HSIIDC can substitute the concessionaire with lenders nominee or with a corporation nominee under provisions of substitution agreement; termination of the concession by the HSIIDC, taking over the concession by HSIIDC; substitution of concessionaire with lenders nominee after revising the terms and conditions of concession agreement and concession period; substitution of the concessionaire under provisions of capacity augmentation clause of the concession agreement and substitution by lenders and bankers.